Archive for October, 2009

I posted a link to the video that I edited of Skeeter breaking down a hog’s head to make headcheese for the restaurant. My friend, John Moody (Moodyfilm.com), and I had filmed Skeeter process a whole hog into manageeable parts to be served at the restaurant. This was the biggest hog that had come through the doors yet. This beast was only 8 pounds lighter than Skeeter!

I was fine with Skeeter carving out the hog’s shoulder. Cutting out the neck seemed merely an addendum. Even slicing off the flank of the hog failed to scare up a hackle on my arm…but watching Skeeter hew the skull into pieces without hesitancey set me aback a little. That quiesiness drew my attention and I pursued that little sickling through my mental labryinth and tried to bring it into the open scrutiny of my conscous mind. Hewing of the Hog’s Head

Watching the lifeless jaws yawn up at me tightened my bowels a little bit. I would have averted my gaze earlier when Skeeter gauged out the eyes, but I was editing and so had a duty to fulfill. My girlfriend squeeled and scurried from the room, exhorting me to care for her peace of mind a little more earnestnly.

I couldn’t tell whether I was uneasy with the concept of eating my fellow mammals due to the inane wrongness of it or because I was so inured to only consuming already processed, packaged protein which held no suggestion of origin.

Perhaps because there is very little genetic difference between a hog and a human, and I am of the imaginative type, the undoing of the head into smaller pieces which could then be cooked ina pot to create headcheese creeped me out a bit. I understood that humans need protein to survive, and the current predominant cultural method of procuring protein was to slaughter animals, and I knew utilizing each portion of the beast was the only way to honor its death (and maintain the bottom line of the business).

To resolve this issue I thought it best to follow this quesiness to its logical conclusion.
Go witness the slaughtering of hogs meant for the dinner plate.